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Hope Fund: Ills hinder family’s hopes for normalcy

Jamilah Simmons remembers the day she realized the daunting challenges her son, Sylus faced.

Simmons was shopping with her family in a Walmart when she looked down to see Sylus, then 2 years old, shaking and pressing his small hands against his ears.

He was trying to block out the sounds circulating around the store.

Soon, Sylus began to cry.

Simmons, a former early childhood education student with some experience in working directly with children, knew something was wrong.

Eventually, Sylus was diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder, a disability that often hinders the ability for someone to communicate verbally.

Many people with autism spectrum disorder also often feel as though they undergoing a sensory overload — which is what Sylus experienced in the Walmart — and they face numerous social challenges.

Now 5 years old, Sylus still doesn’t talk.

Instead, he mimics sounds or depends on his sister Sariah, 4, to speak for him.

“They have their own language,” Simmons says of her son and daughter.

“He won’t speak, but he will show you [through Sariah].”

Sylus isn’t the only family member that faces major medical obstacles.

Jamilah Simmons has multiple sclerosis, a diagnosis she received three weeks after Sariah was born in 2012.

Simmons also has epilepsy, fibromyalgia and a heart condition.

Because of the serious medical conditions that confront both Simmons and her son on a daily basis, her husband, Daniel — a Navy veteran — doesn’t have the ability to take a full-time job because he takes care of his wife (who is occasionally bedridden) and the children.

“You do what you have to do,” says Daniel Simmons.

All of these issues leave the Simmons family in a perilous financial state. The family receives some monthly benefits — but they are relatively scarce given the major medical problems, and may actually be decreased soon because of paperwork red tape regarding Sylus’ condition.

In addition, one prescriptions that often eases Jamilah Simmons’ multiple sclerosis symptoms — and give her enough mobility to walk — may soon not be covered under Medicaid.

She is now on her last box of that medication.

“I’m living,” she said. “God is in control. It’s not easy. But I keep going.”

Simmons and her family pray that the Hope Fund will be able to provide them with enough help to provide even a month of relief — and enable them to better meet their need for necessities like rent, food, medicine and clothes.

Despite their current circumstances, the Simmons family remains united and bound by deep and unconditional love.

The kind of love that drives Sariah to serve as the voice for her silent older brother.

The kind of love that drives Daniel Simmons, who for now must put aside his ambition to become a law enforcement officer, to be there — always — for his severely ill wife.